((As you can see, Halestorm's Bad Romance is up there! Trust me, you'll want to hear this song for a certain bit in this chapter XD))
———————
It's been three days since Baddie gave Edgy the pills, four days since he made his promise to help his roommate with his clearly requited crush. Sunny-D's been conveniently out for the week, and each time always came back with a strange box. While the sunshine man never shared details about his visits, Baddie and Edgy never shared details about what's been going on in the past couple of days. The only evidence of things having changed was the fact that—well, they didn't have to fake getting along in front of Sunny anymore.
Turns out spending time with Edgy had been much more pleasant than he first gave it credit for, and what had been fighting and arguing ended up becoming more of a genuine friendship. They doubted Sunny-D saw the difference, but Baddie knew something shifted between him and Edgy.
"I'm almost going to miss hanging out at the park with this blue dumbass," the red thought to himself. "He's actually fun to be around."
"Dude are you even listening, or are you just going to keep staring at me like that?" The sound of Edgy's voice brought him back to the playground, finding both his roommate and himself swinging on the abandoned swing set. He also noticed himself staring straight into the beanie-wearing male's eyes, eyes that Baddie had found he'd been studying since the first time he saw them glazed with agonizing pain. They used to stare back at the red with pure loathing, didn't want nothing to do with him and vice versa. Now the very same eyes that belonged to someone he loathed were glistening with the afternoon sun, shining with a sort of clarity he didn't think Edgy had in him. They were nice to look at, the prankster admitted to himself.
He also admitted to himself that his thoughts are souding really fucking stupid, what the fuck is he thinking?

Baddie shook his head and snorted. "Dunno what you mean by staring, there isn't much to look at." He ignored the thuds his chest was making as Edgy elbowed his arm, opting to laugh teasingly instead.
"Rude. You're supposed to be bringing up my self-esteem, asshole. How else am I going to ask Bad out?" He ignored them even more when the blue said that, but wondered to himself what was going on with his internal system,
God, why was his chest hurting so much? Baddie decided to distract himself from the aching by swinging, kicking his feet to bring himself a little higher. He heard Edgy laugh and chuckled himself. "I told you man, just go up to him and tell him how you feel. 'Sides, you still got that plushie right?"
It didn't take long for the blue to join him in swinging around too. "You mean the one you laughed at me for buying? Yeah I still got it, dickwad."
"I thought it was cute in a funny way! Sue me!" He grinned hearing Edgy laugh again. "Anyways, give him the plush when you confess your undying love to him!"
"Oh my fucking god you're the worst wingman ever. Why did I even trust you?" More laughter came from the duo as Edgy stopped his swing to catch his breath, Baddie following soon after.

"Because you love me."
Almost immediately, everything fell into a silence. Edgy stared at Baddie when he said that, Baddie frozen in his place. Why is it suddenly silent, why does it feel awkward, why is Edgy just staring at me?
"...Edgy, c'mon man, it was a joke." The prankster looked back at him, raised eyebrow and lopsided smile at play. "What, are you going to confess your undying love to me or something?"
He started to laugh it off, but why was Baddie the only one laughing? The thudding in his chest worsened when Edgy looked down at the ground.
"Baddie." The aforementioned male looked up when his name was spoken, an air of tension followed along with it. "I think i'm in love with you."
What. He watched as Edgy got up from the swing and stood in front of him. This isn't happening. His chest was beating loudly in his ears, blood pulsating in a symphony of what Baddie could only describe as pure anxiety.
"We've been talking for a short amount of time, and I think i've come to know you pretty well." This isn't happening. The pain in his chest ached even more, hands gripping the handles of the swing tightly.
"But I think I want to know you better, from a different stance." This isn't happening. Something felt like it was recoiling around his lungs, it was like he couldn't breathe.
"It's just, you're always on my mind and I can't stay quiet about this anymore, it'll drive me crazy." Why is this happening. He could feel the rush going up his neck, struggling to choke it down.

Mouth agape, eyes widened, stock-still, it feels like the roles have reversed for just a second, and before the prankster could even muster a coherent response, his roommate tried to stifle a giggle before bursting out into hearty laughter. Baddie blinked, the tension that was once in the air suddenly lifted, as if time itself stopped for just that moment of anxiety and internal pain. Despite still feeling confused and strangely worse, he laughed along with Edgy. "You, are such a motherfucking asshole."
The blue only laughed harder, ending up sitting on the ground as he started to relax. "Maybe, but you're just as bad."
Baddie shrugged, smirking. "Can't be helped. I was worried you actually fell in love with me."
The devilish man laughed when he stuck out his tongue in mock disgust. "In your dreams. Though, do you think that sounded good? The confession?"
It certainly hurt alot, actually it hurt way more than alot, but that's probably because you scared me half to death with your bullshit vocal love letter. "I think that's pretty much perfect. You'll have BBH wrapped around your finger after tomorrow night."
"Tomorrow night? What's the karaoke meet-up gotta do with this?" Ohhhhh, so that's what he forgot.
"Oh, right, I never told you. I invited Bad and his friends to join us." "WHAT?!"
Though still laughing, watching as Edgy's temporary boost of confidence crumbled, Baddie couldn't help the sinking feeling in his gut. He wondered if things would turn out as great as Edgy hoped, as they both hoped. He wonders why his chest still stung even after they had gotten home.
And while the oleander pills worked wonders in fending off the hanahaki disease, it still caused his roommate immense pain. Though he no longer vomited out blood and the petals that did get thrown up were lacking in numbers, what came out instead was this gooping horrid violet sludge that reeked of the sickeningly sweet oleander flowers. Baddie hoped to god he'd never have to smell something so putrid ever again after tonight.

His thoughts halted for a moment when Edgy leaned onto Baddie's shoulders for support. "You need water again? I can go get you another glass in t—"
"Thank you."
"What?" The red gently lifted his roommate up, who only further fell into his arms.
"Thank you, Baddie." Edgy said it again, chuckling weakly, voice hoarse after vomiting the poison. "I... I don't think I would have made it this far without your help."
Baddie had never heard the blue refer to him in such a genuine way, and the pit in his stomach grew wider as he smiled, picking up his hopeless romantic on routine to take him back to his room. "You're welcome, Edgy. Afterall, what're friends for?"

•

The karaoke place boomed and bustled with the noise of drunken individuals singing their hearts out to the songs that played on bright TV screens. Well, it seemed like quite the party. As the group made their way to the booth, Baddie glanced back and saw Edgy still pouting. The blue roommate's arms were crossed, looking anywhere but forward, and the red had half the mind to accompany him at the back of the group. Before he could make the decision to fall back from his conversation with Snap and Skeppy, the prankster noticed someone shuffling quietly behind him. It seemed to have caught Edgy by surprise, but it didn't take long for that surprise to melt from his face, immediately replaced with an awkwardly flustered smile. Baddie turned his head away when he realized what was going on.
Badboyhalo already beat him to the act; whatever, good for him.
The prankster caught his thoughts mid-way, hearing the passive-aggressiveness in its tone, and blinked in confusion. What the hell was that? Of course it's good for him, Edgy's found an excuse to get closer to Bad. An excuse that he helped plan for. This is one more step closer to getting rid of that stupid awful disease the blue suffered from—suffered because of Bad, that is—and a step closer to not having to pay for thise terrible oleander pills. So why was he getting pissed off just because his goody two-shoes counterpart was making his job easier for him?

Baddie shook himself out of his thoughts, opening the door of the booth for the others to walk in. Edgy and Bad were the last ones to enter, it looked like the blue made a joke that got his counterpart to laugh. The corners of his roommate's mouth curved slightly upwards, seemingly satisfied with himself. Baddie huffed and closed the booth door behind him, ignoring the once-again aching in his chest. He makes a mental note to check in with a doctor after tonight. The red found himself sitting between Snap and Edgy, with Snap at his right and Edgy at his left, watching as A6D volunteered to order food and drinks for the group. They all took this time to talk, Baddie doing his best to ignore Edgy's dumb giggling, though it was hard to do with the blue being literally a seat next to him.
"And so, what I did—!" The prankster noticed a shift in Edgy's movement and felt his roommate's back press against his own. Glancing over for a second, the beanie-wearing male didn't seem to pay his actions any mind. On any normal day Baddie probably would have shoved him off and laughed at his roommate's amusing anger, but something felt... different. He decided to let it slide—just this once—and continued talking to Snap. For a moment it looked like the fashionable man raised an eyebrow at him, but the prankster brushed off that thought as merely being paranoid. Besides, there's nothing wrong with wanting to chill for just one night, and it seemed like everyone was getting along just fine. So, why ruin it?
The buzzer given to A6D beeped a bright red. "Ah, excuse me. I'll go get the meals."
While the french man went off to place the order, Baddie watched as Meg stood up near-immediately to grab at the list of songs before anyone else could, the scarf-wearing brun cheekily smiling. "It's time to get this show on the road! A6D won't mind if he misses a song or two."
When ABBA's Dancing Queen came on-screen, Meg confidently holding the mic, everyone groaned (or laughed, Sunny-D sure as hell did). This is going to be one hell of a night, Baddie can already tell.
•
A couple drinks and two hours in, the lightweights of the group were definitely shitfaced. Baddie chuckled into his cup as Skeppy and A6D sang along to Britney Spears' Toxic, looking around and seeing Sunny-D sneaking a video of them on his phone.
"TOO HIGH, CAN'T COME DOWN! IT'S IN THE AIR AND IT'S ALL AROUND!" Oh jeez, maybe it's more screaming than it is singing. "CAN YOU FEEL ME NOW?"
"Yeah! You're doin' fucking awesome!" The red snorted at Meg's cheering, rolling his eyes. "OWN THAT MICROPHONE!"
"Dude, what the fuck is wrong with you?" Baddie retorts, snickering. "He's so drunk."
He looked around, seeing everyone acting much more pleasantly than earlier. Earlier, things felt way more awkward but, well, you can always count on good food and alcohol to break that tension huh?
Speaking of tension, when the prankster looked over at Edgy, he didn't notice the laughing and attention the blue and Bad initially had. Instead, his roommate seemed to have contented himself once more to just watching as the baker cheered on his best friends. Oh, for the love of god. Baddie scooted himself closer to his friend and nudged the beanie-wearing blue with his elbow. "Oi, what the fuck are you doing? I thought the whole reason you were talking and giggling with Bad was to get closer to him!" The red spoke a little loudly, though he doubted anyone could've heard him. "What're you doin' gawking again?"
Edgy flustered again and turned to properly face him, putting a finger on his mouth. "Shh, you fucking dumbass! Look, i'm— i'm trying okay? I can't just— I—"
The prankster watched as Edgy stumbled on his words, looking for an excuse for why he wasn't acting upon his crush, DESPITE all the coaching Baddie had given him to prepare him for something like this. What an idiot! The blue's words started to murmur as Toxic came to an end and, suddenly, Baddie had an idea.

Smirking, he grabbed Edgy's hand and stood up, pulling his roommate out of his seat who responded with a "HEY!". The red-wearing brun whistled for the microphone, catching it as it was thrown and punching in the number for a certain song he knew a certain someone would like.
"Baddie!" Edgy hissed, curling slightly in discomfort. "What the fuck are you doing?"
"Glad you asked! You see, I noticed out of everyone in this room—myself included—you still have yet to sing anything this fine karaoke night." Despite Edgy already paling at the idea, Baddie continued. "Well the night's still young, you're still sober, and we don't have all the time in the world, so i've decided to set up a song for you!"
Edgy practically turned deathly white as he squeaked out a "WHAT?!". "Look, Edgy, I promise you it won't be that bad." Baddie tried for a reassuring smile, handing the mic to his roommate as the song started to play. "You gotta do something to grab his attention right? Well, this'll definitely grab his attention—one way or another."
"Baddie, I—" The red stopped him from speaking anymore, shifting his roommate's face to look at the lyrics showing up on the screen.
"Can it, petals, stop overthinking for once. You can do this, alright? Just relax, we're all friends here." Baddie moved away from his friend after saying that line, chuckling quietly to himself when he heard Edgy breathe in and out as he went back to slouch in his seat.
When Snap turned to look at him again, Baddie raised his glass cup to him. "Pour me some brandy will ya?"
The sound of liquor sloshing in his cup brought back peace into the devilish man's mind, downing the cup with a pleasant smile on his face. He watched as Edgy sang along to Halestorm's version of Bad Romance, grinning as the confidence in his voice grew with each beat. I knew he'd get into this song.

"Since when were you and Edgy so close?" Snap finally asked, having been staring at Baddie for an uncomfortable moment. In response, as per usual the Baddie way, he just shrugged. "It kinda just... happened."
"In a week?" The bandana-wearing male questioned further.
Before he could answer him, the chorus hit. And god, did it hit.
Baddie meant to only glance over at Edgy as he sung, but the moment his eyes locked onto the singing figure, it was as if they were glued to what was in front of him. He was smiling so, so brightly, eyes glowing with the hues of the television screen, looking like rainbows were dancing in his irises. He was sweating—no shit he was, this was an enclosed room full of drunken or close-to-drunk adults, but despite that he looked like he was having so much fun singing all of a sudden. His voice—god, his voice—reached the notes so perfectly, the red was absolutely fixated: Baddie just couldn't stop staring.
As the chorus settled down into the next verse, the prankster looked around. Suddenly, everyone was vocal around him, cheering Edgy on or hell—even backing up his verses, but the one thing in this room more vocal and louder than the rest of the chaos: Bad's awed silence. He was frozen in place, eyes just as fixated on Edgy as Baddie was, face flushed bright red—from the alcohol or Edgy, he didn't know—and face just screaming 'lovestruck'.
And Edgy, he knew he was singing his heart out to one person in particular. At least Baddie's plan worked like a charm.
Suddenly, something clawed at his chest and started to climb out of his throat. The devilish red coughed into his fist, heart dropping. Hand twitching, he took a moment to recompose himself, taking another swig of brandy to wash away the pain. It only burned his throat even more.
His lungs felt like they were going to close up on him, his heart pounded as if it were coming out of his chest, and his knees felt weak. Every part of himself was yelling to go home right now and, despite wanting desperately to stick around and listen to Edgy finish the song, his body moved on it's own mid-way into the bridge of the song. Baddie tapped Snap on the shoulder. "Hey, can you tell the others I went back home? I just remembered I had something to do."
Before getting any sort of response, Baddie immediately made his way out the booth door, casually walking by other groups as he exited the karaoke place.

•

At first, Baddie was just walking a smile on his face. But the further he got away, the slower he was, the worst he felt, and suddenly he was sprinting down the sideway. His vision blurred, chest pounding louder and louder into his eardrums, he was running breathlessly and blindly, he hadn't realized he had been crying all the way back until the prankster saw his hands. They were uncontrollably shaking, and with each battered breath he only felt weaker. Finally gaining control of his limbs, he unlocked the house door and swung it open.
Baddie barely gathered the strength to close the the door behind him before feeling a familiar burning in his throat, urging him to rush to the bathroom right fucking now. And that's just what he did, rushing to the bathroom just as the burning lump in his throat bursted, As he ducked his head into the toilet bowl—the prankster recognized the sickeningly sweet scent that scorched his sense of smell.

He puked up dozens upon dozens of pink flowers, the tears in his eyes flowing down from his cheeks. Painfully coughing, one after the other, the taste of oleanders and iron painted the insides of his mouth along with the vile taste of bile. His joints felt weak, limbs heavy as he pushed himself away from the toilet bowl. Baddie's entire throat burned, stinging with the scratches those damned petals left inside it. His eyes were glazed over with tears and he couldn't figure out how to stop them from overflowing and staining his cheeks. He didn't know how it started in the first place.
Baddie didn't know the first thing about love, didn't understand shit about romance and all that sappy business. And he thought it was always going to be that way. Never did he expect his first love to be the one person he didn't expect to fall for. Never did he expect to fall in love with someone whose heart has already been taken.
What he did know was that the roles truly have been reversed, he always had that gut feeling everytime his stomach twisted and turned, except this time there's no way Baddie would survive this like Edgy had. Unlike Edgy, Baddie already knew how his crush felt. There was no chance in hell he could even compete with a romance like that.
Like a movie coming to a close, something he said days ago came back and echoed into his head.
'Just make sure you don't fall in love with me til' then.'

Impulsively he laughed at himself, laughed himself so hard he started crying again, knowing damn well this so-called pit in his stomach had become cavernous. He couldn't help himself, the irony of the situation was just too rich.
Oleanders are what saved his roommate yet they're what will kill him, he told Edgy not to fall in love with him yet the red himself ended up falling in love with an immposible catch, the beanie-wearing blue always had Baddie to help him through the hanahaki disease yet Baddie was utterly alone.
And he still couldn't help himself, passing out in the bathroom as the oleandrin and neriine of his own flowers made their journey from his bowels straight into his heart.

Poison was already running through his veins, what difference does a bunch of wilted oleanders make to someone who was already dying? At least he wasn't mistaken about one thing, he wouldn't be the one to find a flowery corpse in the bathroom.